Smoky Roasty Chick Peas, Sans Husband

By Kitty, on March 11th, 2008

My husband is on a business trip this week, which means that for the next 5 days, its all about me me me! Gilmore Girls marathons! George Michael’s Greatest Hits at full blast! Stickers and ponies and My Space dot com! I can’t wait!

Actually, he doesn’t leave until tomorrow, and I miss him already.

But I can still eat pretty good while he’s gone. First on the agenda, a little batch of crunchy, salty goodness to munch on while I determine exactly how many different dishes would taste better with sliced avocado on top. So far, I am up to 37.

A method more than a recipe, roasting garbanzo beans develops their nutty flavor, transforming them into a crunchy, easy to flavor snack that reminds me a bit of cornnuts. Recipes are plentiful online, but there is a roasted chick pea controversy debating the merits of dry roasting versus coating the ceci beans in oil and spices before they hit the oven. Dry roasting fans claim its the only way to insure they maintain their crunch when sealed longer than a day in an airtight container. Mine don’t usually last that long. For this batch, I used my new smoked sea salts that I have been dying to try, but they’d also be delicious with a Moroccan spice blend, garlic salt or plain old sea salt.

Drain a can of garbanzos, and rinse well. Shake them off, dry the beans as much as possible, and add to a dark-bottomed pan. Coast in olive oil, and place in a preheated 450F oven for 30 – 40 minutes, shaking the pan occasionally. Remove from oven, sprinkle with smoked salt, and allow to cool. Now munch.

I had some spicy fried chickpeas at Absinthe in San Francisco- they were so good and I wanted to try approximating them. I will definitely try your recipe! Probably better to bake than fry anyway… at least for my thighs. I believe the ones I had were tossed with chili powder, salt, and lemon zest perhaps? Thanks for sharing the recipe!

I keep hearing about roasted chickpeas but have not tried them out yet. Such a simple recipe and I always have chickpeas stocked so I think tomorrow is the day I give your recipe a try. I’ll let you know how we like them.

Well until I read your post, I didn’t even realize there was as controversy. My method is simply the recipe I read first, and have always followed, and that’s exactly what you’ve provided here — dry them as much as possible, coat very very thinly with olive oil (I don’t use more than tablespoon for the entire can), add spices as desired, spread on a pan, and roast.

I am a “fancy salt” addict so I have lots of different varieties, so the spices I add may change weekly. Right now I’m on a Schezwan Pepper-Salt kick, but I just discovered Penzey’s blends (from reading blogs), ordered some of their seasonings, and I’m in love with those too … so my next batch may have something like Penzey’s North Woods blend or Sandwich Sprinkle (the best stuff on earth).

I eat my roasted cici beans out of hand, and also on top of soups and salads — in place of croutons. A few roasted beans look great on cauliflower soup and similar pureed soups, and add some texture.

I hope you enjoy Temporarily Single Week! Time to never get out of your pajamas, try new facial masks, pick your toes, and make long phone calls. Which reminds me of that hilarious spoof on “Ghost” (the film) which appeared on SNL many years ago. Sam comes back from beyond to visit his wife and sees how many truly disgusting habits she has when he’s not around, such as putting her toes in her mouth to chew her own toenails.

I’m about to have Temporarily Single Week myself. Whatever shall I do!? I can eat whatever I want for dinner without consideration for how “man friendly” it is.
And your comment was spot on. I SHOULD calculate the home breakfast and compare the two. Thanks for the idea;)

my husband would love these. his favorite childhood snack was plain chickpeas right from the can (it was a strange household).

whenever i have a temporarily single week, i usually eat oatmeal for dinner every night and spend my time cleaning the apartment meticulously while singing aimee mann songs as loudly as possible. for some reason, i only like to clean when i’m alone.

I did a smorgasbord kind of thing with different favored sea salts. I tried the smoked sea salt that you used. I also tried ginger szechwan sea salt and santiago citrus sea salt — these had more of a spicy kick, which I love… plus the healthy aspect is always a plus. They were made by the same company.

Like that I can eat a sack of this snack and not feel too sinful and bad!

My favorite treat when I lived in Tokyo, Japan a few years ago was wasabi green peas. I think I am going to try that horseradish kick on this garbanzo beans/chickpeas. Thank you very much for this delicious inspiration!

I looooooove roasted chickpeas! I make them in the oven, with the teeensiest bit of oil (I put the drained, rinsed, blotted can in a bowl, “spritz” with oil from the misto, and stir, that’s it!) salt, and nutritional yeast. Cheezy!!!

I thought the combo of roasted beans + nutritional yeast would = husband hatred, but he loved them! He stands over me while I make them now. “Are they done yet? Are there more?” Hee.

I’m going to try making them smoky like this (maybe with some smoked paprika, or if I can find it, Bacon Salt). Yum! Also it looks like those are much more brown than I get mine. I just let them get golden, so they have a “bite” to them more so than a dry “crunch”. I’ll take half the batch out at the gold point and get the other ones nice and brown next time. Gotta try it!
(apparently I’m logged in to wordpress now. weird. usually I post as “Keight”. Hi, Kitty!! :oD)

I am SOOO HAPPY to have found your blog!! My fiancee hates (most) veggies, and is a true meat ‘n’ potatoes guy. He also has a cholestoral reading of about 250. It’s so hard to get him to eat healthy without “nagging” him.

He also travels like your husband, and when he’s gone I love my alone time too (even though I miss him!)

Just found your website and it’s a real hoot! I make roasted chickpeas all the time…way better than a bag of greasy tater chips. Have you tried baking thinly sliced sweet potatoes yet???? MMMMMMMM GOOD! I try some crazy stuff and my man won’t eat adventurously…it’a a drag sometimes, so I have those wild nites too when he travels. After all, a girl has gotta do what girl has gotta do. Enjoy! Drop me an e-mail if ever ya need to yak to another wild housewife…. CHRISI (in California)

I make them with boiled dry chick peas. that way I can control how soft they get. I sometimes i experiment with different spices. my fave thusfar is a jamacian jerk blend.
I also boil a little salt fish in with the peas sometimes and I’ll mash some of the peas to use when I make west indian style fish cakes.

I looooooove roasted chickpeas! I make them in the oven, with the teeensiest bit of oil (I put the drained, rinsed, blotted can in a bowl, “spritz” with oil from the misto, and stir, that’s it!) salt, and nutritional yeast. Cheezy!!!

I thought the combo of roasted beans + nutritional yeast would = husband hatred, but he loved them! He stands over me while I make them now. “Are they done yet? Are there more?” Hee.

I’m going to try making them smoky like this (maybe with some smoked paprika, or if I can find it, Bacon Salt). Yum! Also it looks like those are much more brown than I get mine. I just let them get golden, so they have a “bite” to them more so than a dry “crunch”. I’ll take half the batch out at the gold point and get the other ones nice and brown next time. Gotta try it!
(apparently I’m logged in to wordpress now. weird. usually I post as “Keight”. Hi, Kitty!! :oD)